Chapter 52

Chapter 52

Ren's eyes drifted down Ashton's back and settled on his butt for a second too long. He covered a cough, turning his burning face to the side to pretend that he was actually scoping out the place rather than ogling.

It was exactly the same as it had been when they'd been here yesterday. They found their way easily from memory though the halls. It wasn't that much of a maze like it had been out to be last time. It really did help that they'd been here before. And it was also nice to know that they had someone on the inside working for them.

Well, that's what Darrien agreed to be. There was no guarantee that he was going to go through with his end of the bargain. Especially not when they'd threatened to put a hole in his skull.

Ren grimaced as he thought about actually pulling the trigger. He didn't want to do that. He never wanted to do that. But if push came to shove, he would make sure that the people on the winning side weren't the Hunter Society. Even if that meant taking out one small piece of the puzzle.

Something unsettling gave way inside of him. The thing loved the idea of destroying "pieces" too much. He didn't like that that thought had slipped inside his mind so easily.

They came to a corner that lead to a hall that they'd never been down. Ashton stopped a couple feet before the corner. Ren stood by, looking around to make sure no one was coming.

Voices trailed from down the unknown hall. From the noise, there were a lot of people. If there were people walking around keeping guard, Ren wouldn't know because he couldn't hear over the chatter. It was actually a really good thing that Ashton was here. As much as he was an annoyance, he was actually better at everything than Ren was.

"What's going on?" Ren whispered.

Ashton shook his head as he leaned closer. He was quiet for a moment before he pulled away and looked back at Ren.

"They're talking about the news. They want the murders to go national," Ashton said. His voice died at the end. His attention was stolen and he focused back on the voices.

Ren wished that he could hear as well what was going on. He grabbed Ashton's arm, holding on tight as he waited for him to say more.

Ashton didn't push him off like he thought he would. Instead, he seemed to relax into Ren's hold.

"They've got someone on the inside. Something about supporters everywhere."

Ren bit his lip. "Anything else?"

"Someone else is getting up to talk. I can't make out much more. They've gone on a break or something. They're talking over one another."

Ashton pulled away and leaned against the wall. "Do you think Darrien is in there?"

Ren shrugged. "I have no idea. We can head to the offices. There's a chance that no one is there."

Ashton furrowed his brows. "I just don't get why they are acting so calm when we breached them. Surely, they would be swarming all over the place after that happened."

That puzzled Ren as well. "Maybe they don't think we'd come back? I mean, that's idiotic after almost getting killed, right?"

He couldn't think of a better reason as to why they were all in one room. They had to think that they weren't in any danger or else they would have been more pressed for security.

Ashton backed up. "Someone's coming."

They both hurried down the hall as fast as they could and as quiet as they could. There wasn't anywhere to hide until they stumbled upon what looked like a storage closet. Ren didn't think as he cracked the door open and moved inside. Ashton squeezed in next to him and closed the door.

They hid just in time. As the door closed shut, footsteps came from where they'd just been standing. The steps came closer and then someone walked steadily in front of the closet. Their steps were slow and almost calculated.

Ren tried to stay calm. His eyes stared at the crack beneath the closet door. The light from the hall shined through, illuminating cramped dark space.

Then, the person moved on.

Neither of them moved or said anything for about a minute.

"Let's go to that office. We'll grab what we can and then we'll leave," Ren said. He felt like it was a solid plan. However, actually doing it successfully was easier said than done.

Ren grabbed the handle and was about to open it when Ashton yanked him back.

The door flew open, but not because Ren had opened it.

"What are you doing in the closet? I've been looking all over for you," Darrien hissed as he took in the two of them huddled together against the wall.

Ren's eyes were impossibly wide. "I think I'm going to pass out."

Ashton had his hands on Ren's shoulders. He held Ren out to the side of him, holding him firmly. His hands squeezed slightly.

"No you're not. Take a deep breath and slowly let it out."

Ren took a deep breath, but it was too fast. His breath hitched and he tried to get another breath in before the other one was even out. Ashton shook his head.

"Slow," he said, placing a hand on Ren's cheek. "Breathe with me. 1...2...3..."

This time Ren followed the beats, breathing in as slow as he could manage.

"Now let it out. 1...2...3..."

It was much easier. Ren was staring into Ashton's eyes. His heart was racing and his stomach was clenching with anxiety. But it felt so much better with Ashton's comforting hand on his face and shoulder. When he was staring into Ashton's eyes, it felt like he was safe from the rest of the world and that there was nothing that could go wrong when he was around.

After while, Ren was fine and he didn't feel the dizziness he'd felt before. He didn't feel like he was a bag of bricks about to slam to the ground.

He looked away. "Thanks."

Ashton's thumb brushed over the top of Ren's cheek. "You're welcome."

Darrien cleared his throat. "You two might want to hurry up."

Ashton dropped his hands. Ren touched his cheek, the warmth of Ashton's hand still lingering.

He flushed as Darrien looked at him.

He shoved his hands to his sides.

"Is it safe?"

Darrien nodded. He waved for them to come out. "For now. You don't have much longer before the meeting is over. They don't suspect anything."

The three of them walked out into the hall. Ashton closed the closet door roughly, sending a loud bang throughout the hall. Ren and Darrien both sent him a dirty look.

"What?" He sneered at Darrien. He walked past Ren like he didn't even see him.

Ren was floored by Ashton's reaction. He hit Ashton lightly with the back of his hand on his side. "What the hell?"

Darrien gave a small shake of his head before he was swiftly walking in front of them. Ren kept up with Darrien's pace while also trying to stay close to Ashton.

"What was that about?" Ren whispered, pretty sure that Ashton would have no trouble hearing him.

Ashton kept staring ahead. Almost burning a hole into the back of Darrien's head. "Maybe you should ask your friend. It seems you value his opinion quite a lot."

He had no fucking idea what Ashton was blabbering about. He also didn't know why the hell Ashton was getting so upset to the point where he thought it would be a good idea to alert the other Hunters that they were here.

Ren, once again, didn't have the chance to press Ashton further and get to the bottom of his sour mood. They were racing toward the offices that he and Ashton had been caught in just yesterday. It was quiet and deserted like they'd found it the day before.

Ren was curious once more about why exactly the Hunters were letting them run around when they'd trespassed earlier. Surely there had to be a reason why they had their guard down.

Darrien didn't seem like he cared as much. Maybe this was a new building and there weren't security cameras in place or something like that.

But still. Ren's hair was standing on the back of his neck. He didn't like this at all and though it had been his idea to come here in the first place, he was starting to think that he'd made the wrong call.

Darrien walked to the last office door—the exact same one that they'd gone into yesterday.

Ren slowed as he remembered what had been behind that door. It was a disgusting show of horrific cruelty and plain sociopathic murder. There was no other way to describe it. And his stomach was churning at the thought of seeing those images again.

He fell behind the two of them. Ashton walked ahead of him while Darrien was already opening the door. As Darrien poked his head in, Ashton turned to look back at Ren.

His motions must have been written over his face. Ashton saw them painted on his features and he wished that he could hide. He wanted to fell into a deep and dark hole and never come out again. And the way that Ashton looked at him made him feel worse. He didn't want to be pitied. He didn't want Ashton's sympathy, especially when Ashton never gave it to anyone else.

It just made him feel like he was nothing and that he was weaker than everyone else.

Ashton didn't say anything. Perhaps he could feel exactly what Ren was feeling through their connection.

Ren wanted to cut it off. He didn't want this. It confused everything and it was driving him crazy.

Darrien ushered them in. "Hurry. The meeting is going to be ending soon."

Ren didn't question how he knew that.

He scurried through the door, mentally preparing himself for when he saw the wall. The office was a mess. It hadn't been cleaned up from when they had fought. It looked like it had been left exactly the way that it had been when Ren and Ashton had run off into the forest. Ren looked over the place, taking it all in with a strange sense of deja vu. Though, he wasn't sure it was deja vu. It was just uneasiness. A pit of something vile in his stomach that he couldn't explain.

Ashton walked in with ease. He glided over to the wall where the pictures were hung up. He pulled one off the wall.

"These won't be enough," he said.

Ren was turned to the side. He could make out the shadows of the pictures and Ashton, but he couldn't see them clearly. Not yet. He wanted to get away with not looking at them for as long as possible.

"It should be enough," Ren replied. He couldn't possibly imagine that someone would look at those photos and think there was no reason for action.

Ashton ripped off another picture. "We can't prove that the Hunter Society is behind them. We need proof that they were."

Ren looked over to Darrien.

He raised his brows. "I'm not going to be your proof."

Ashton tucked the pictures into his pants. "Of course not. You're the son of the man behind the operation."

Darrien's face darkened. "I'm helping you right now."

"Because we put a gun to your head. If you really felt what this place was doing was wrong you would have tried to stop it a long time ago."

"Ashton!" Ren tried to keep his voice low, but it was still loud. His hands slammed down on the desk.

Ashton pressed his lips together. He glared hard at Darrien who was looking back at him with the same malice. They were more enemies than Ren was with either of them. He was caught in the middle, but he was also on his own little island where he didn't have a place.

When he yelled at Ashton, he'd looked at him which meant that he was looking in the direction of the photographs. He couldn't stop his eyes from wandering to them. They were practically right in his face even though they were across the room. It was strange how his eyesight was shit until right then. He could see every detail like he was standing in the scene. He was standing in front of those people as they were cut, burned, and beaten. Their cries were surrounding him, piercing his eardrums.

The tears were spilling before he could even notice. His throat tightened and the burning came soon after.

He wiped his eyes. It was too late for him to do anything for them. What he could do was make sure it didn't happen to anyone else.

"What can we get?" He whispered to himself. What was there that would prove that the Hunter Society was behind all this?

Darrien fidgeted by the door. He put his hand on the handle. "I think I know what would prove it."

Ren looked up. "How?"

Darrien turned his face to the side, his brows furrowing. "This place is basically for show. Everything you see on that wall didn't happen here."

"Of course," Ashton scoffed. "Everything about the Society is built on lies and shams."

Darrien gave him a blank stare. "It's not all lies. Vampires are the prime reason why the world is the way that it is."

Ashton recoiled. "Keep lying to yourself. Humans slaughtered us because they couldn't deal with the idea that they were as weak as farm animals."

"So that is how you view us."

"Stop!" Ren stepped between them. "We are not going to argue about this right now!"

Ashton turned his hardened gaze to Ren. "That's right. We are not going to argue about this because you aren't one of us."

It was worse than a slap to the face. It was worse than being bitten by a Blood Hound. The look, the words, everything about it was just an attempt to make him feel like he didn't matter. Ashton succeeded. Ren felt like dog shit.

Ren could only stare back at Ashton. His face was burning like an ember now. The flush traveled down his neck and spread over his chest. And Ashton just looked like he didn't do anything wrong. He wasn't at all bothered by Ren's reaction.

Heartless. Cold. A true Mantel.

"We need to get going now," Darrien said. He sounded more pressed this time.

Ren turned away from Ashton. He felt sick again and then there was the thing trying to break out of him that wasn't doing him any favors. He didn't look at Darrien or Ashton as they headed out the same door. They were heading in the opposite direction that they had come. They had been at the end of the hall with nowhere to go, but Darrien was leading them through a door across the hall.

It wasn't a room. It was another corridor that looked like it was more for storage for electric cables and such. The place was pitch dark before Darrien turned on the lone light that was centered in the middle of the ceiling. All around the walls were metal shelves that were full of jumbled cables. Some of the cables were as thick as Ren's arms while some of them looked no bigger than a strand of his hair.

As they walked further into the room, the more uneasy Ren got. The feeling prickling at the back of his neck was akin to the feeling he first got when they discovered the Hunter Society building. There was so much agony in this place that it was suffocating. He couldn't escape it and the more he tried to ignore it, the more it came at him with a vengeance.

"What is this place?" Ashton poked at one of the many jumbles of cables with a grimace.

"Don't touch anything," Darrien said, moving to Ashton's side. He looked like he wanted to smack Ashton's hand away, but didn't want to touch him at all.

Ren avoided the two, walking around them as he followed the set path of the metal shelving. It lead him deeper into what he could only describe as another hallway. It was actually more of a corridor if there was such a difference. It was wide and spacious, leading to a darker area that was only briefly touched by the one light at the door.

He could feel it before he saw the door. Waves of sorrow and pain crashed into him. He was at the edge of a cliff, wind crashing into him, threatening to send him over. And he could see down into the depths of the cold black ocean. He didn't have to see clearly what was down there to know his fate if he were to take another step.

Pain, searing like a hot knife, cut through him. His chest was broken open, ribs being ripped from his flesh, and there was no escape. His breaths were frantic. His lungs gasps for control, for some stability. The thing was growling, twisting, and thrashing its tail. It felt the threat as well.

And when Ren actually saw the large metal door at the end of all the metal shelves, he knew this was where Darrien had meant to bring them. Behind this door was what he thought would prove the Hunter Society was behind those pictures.

Bile pressed at the back of his throat. He couldn't hold it in.

He turned, lurching over, and puked. He squeezed his eyes shut, gasping, because if he saw the vomit, he would just puke again.

"Are you—" Darrien began to ask, but he cut himself off.

Ren spat blindly. If he was anywhere else, he might have felt bad about it. He didn't here.

He wiped his mouth, shaking his head as he taste the sourness in the back of his throat.

Ashton gagged. "You've got such a weak stomach."

"It's going to be worse once we go through," Darrien cut in.

"I know."

Ren knew a lot more than he wished he did. Nothing about his abilities was helpful. All it did was make it harder for him.

Darrien patted him on the back.

"Any day now."

Darrien pulled his hand back. He looked caught off guard. He gave Ashton an unimpressed look before he faced the door.

"Prepare yourself. It's not going to be pretty."

As Darrien opened what could have been a portal to hell, Ren was slammed with pain, sorrow, and torture wrapped up in a blanket of anger.

He vomited again.